Vino Mexicano 11/30/06
So, this is a recap of the tasting we did in Puerto Vallarta last November. Only took me seven months to get this posted, not too bad.
The idea to try Mexican wines came about rather organically; we were in Mexico and it was our turn to host the tasting, so why not? Ultimately our curiosity was sated more than our palate, but I'll get to that.
First of all, if we were really trying to achieve a comprehensive survey of the vinicultural offerings that our neighbor to the south had to offer, we would have done both more research about the wines ahead of time, and then seeked out a bona fide wine shop. Instead, we took the convenient route and picked up some wine as we did the rest of our shopping at Gigante, which is something like a Fred Meyer in the States, a full supermarket that also has drug store items and consumer goods like electronics and a limited selection of clothes. Gigante is a local store, not aimed specifically at tourists (there are also a Wal-Mart and a Sam's Club in PV now), so the prices are fair, and if you are looking for bananas or batteries or empañadas with apricot filling, Gigante has you covered. However, the wine selection was unfortunately pretty limited.
Here's what we ended up with:
1. NV Petillant Vino Blanco Espumoso demi sec, $8.45 (prices are in USD). The idea with this was that the following day (Dec 1) was both Shawn and AJ's birthday, so why not start with bubbly? Well, one good reason not to is if said bubbly is terrible, and this bubbly was terrible. It had a yeasty smell, stinky even, and I'm not even sure we finished it. I don't think we did. And if we did, we probably shouldn't have.
2. 2005 XA (Domecq) Cabernet Sauvignon, $7.99. This is a wine produced by Domecq, a huge beverage conglomerate that has since been acquired and sold off in pieces; at the time they were acquired, however, they owned such diverse and well-known brands such as Beefeater gin, Courvoisier cognac, Kahlúa, Malibu rum, Maker's Mark, Mumm and Perrier Jouet champagnes, Sauza tequila, Stolichnaya vodka, and Clos du Bois and various other corporately owned Napa and Sonoma wines, as well as Dunkin' Donuts, Togo's sandwich shops, and Baskin-Robbins. So what does all that mean? Should that make their wines better or worse? Well, if this wine was any indication, I would say worse. Given that this was a 2005 Cab and we were drinking it in 2006, it tasted just like you'd expect: like grape juice. This wine was just way too young, with a flavor like fruit roll-ups, similar to a barrel tasting of a petite syrah that is still at least a year away from bottling. There was a very flat finish as well, almost like cardboard, and what little structure the wine had to begin with had disappeared within 20 minutes. So, obviously this wine was released too early, but would further aging have helped? I guess we'll never know, but it certainly couldn't have hurt.
3. 2001 Domecq Reserva Real, $13.10. Another wine from Domecq. This wine had port-like flavors, but not as concentrated, almost like port from a bottle that's been open too long. Overall, better than #2, but still lacking structure...perhaps this was the answer to what you get when you aged #2 for an extra four years?
4. 2002 Chateau Domecq, $19.99. Similarities to Southern French Vin de Pays, like some wines we've had from the Languedoc region, with a nose redolent of green peppers. The third Domecq wine in a row (again, the selection at Gigante was limited), each one $6 more than the last. This one was the best so far and actually approaching what I'd call drinkable, but it also had some of that "port open too long" flavor, and it's still not something I'd spend $20 on again.
5. 2004 LA Cetto Cabernet Sauvignon, $8.59. Really, really bad. Like Concord grape juice, but not in a good way.
6. (Don't even remember the name of this one), $5.79. Apricot scented, with a fruity taste a bit like Sweet Tarts. Heather liked this one OK, the rest of us not so much.
In summary, these were the worst wines we've had in any tasting so far. That's not really shocking given the price point of most of these and the fact that they were corporate wines available at a supermarket, but we've had Sicilian wines for less than $6 that were better than anything here, and Heather and I have had also good Mexican wine in the past and knew it existed, so I still don't think it was out of line to expect a little more.
Fortunately though, the story doesn't end there.
The next night the group headed into town and had dinner at Thierry Blouet Cocina de Autor, which is the prix-fixe only dining room upstairs at Café des Artistes. An epic French feast in the middle of Puerto Vallarta, this was easily the best meal I'd ever had outside of the United States, and the perfect way for AJ and I to celebrate our birthday on the group's last night in Mexico.
Before the meal we each had a glass of wine in the wine bar downstairs, and it was here that we found the quality Mexican wine that we had been looking for. The best two were both from Monte Xanic, which is the same producer that made the bottle that Heather and I had had at Felipe's up on Insurgentes several years before. AJ got a glass of Monte Xanic Cabernet, and Heather and I tried the Monte Xanic "Gran Ricardo", which I believe was some kind of reserve. There were also a few other red wines from Mexico they had that were quite nice, which names now unfortunately fail me, but according to a poster about Mexican wines that the girl at the bar showed us, the Monte Xanic wines and these other wines, in addition to all the wines we'd had the night before, were all from the same region in Baja California near Ensenada.
So, what's the moral of the story? I would say it's that good Mexican wine does exist, but that you're more likely to find it at one of the best restaurants in Mexico than you are at Gigante.
¡Salud!
The idea to try Mexican wines came about rather organically; we were in Mexico and it was our turn to host the tasting, so why not? Ultimately our curiosity was sated more than our palate, but I'll get to that.
First of all, if we were really trying to achieve a comprehensive survey of the vinicultural offerings that our neighbor to the south had to offer, we would have done both more research about the wines ahead of time, and then seeked out a bona fide wine shop. Instead, we took the convenient route and picked up some wine as we did the rest of our shopping at Gigante, which is something like a Fred Meyer in the States, a full supermarket that also has drug store items and consumer goods like electronics and a limited selection of clothes. Gigante is a local store, not aimed specifically at tourists (there are also a Wal-Mart and a Sam's Club in PV now), so the prices are fair, and if you are looking for bananas or batteries or empañadas with apricot filling, Gigante has you covered. However, the wine selection was unfortunately pretty limited.
Here's what we ended up with:
1. NV Petillant Vino Blanco Espumoso demi sec, $8.45 (prices are in USD). The idea with this was that the following day (Dec 1) was both Shawn and AJ's birthday, so why not start with bubbly? Well, one good reason not to is if said bubbly is terrible, and this bubbly was terrible. It had a yeasty smell, stinky even, and I'm not even sure we finished it. I don't think we did. And if we did, we probably shouldn't have.
2. 2005 XA (Domecq) Cabernet Sauvignon, $7.99. This is a wine produced by Domecq, a huge beverage conglomerate that has since been acquired and sold off in pieces; at the time they were acquired, however, they owned such diverse and well-known brands such as Beefeater gin, Courvoisier cognac, Kahlúa, Malibu rum, Maker's Mark, Mumm and Perrier Jouet champagnes, Sauza tequila, Stolichnaya vodka, and Clos du Bois and various other corporately owned Napa and Sonoma wines, as well as Dunkin' Donuts, Togo's sandwich shops, and Baskin-Robbins. So what does all that mean? Should that make their wines better or worse? Well, if this wine was any indication, I would say worse. Given that this was a 2005 Cab and we were drinking it in 2006, it tasted just like you'd expect: like grape juice. This wine was just way too young, with a flavor like fruit roll-ups, similar to a barrel tasting of a petite syrah that is still at least a year away from bottling. There was a very flat finish as well, almost like cardboard, and what little structure the wine had to begin with had disappeared within 20 minutes. So, obviously this wine was released too early, but would further aging have helped? I guess we'll never know, but it certainly couldn't have hurt.
3. 2001 Domecq Reserva Real, $13.10. Another wine from Domecq. This wine had port-like flavors, but not as concentrated, almost like port from a bottle that's been open too long. Overall, better than #2, but still lacking structure...perhaps this was the answer to what you get when you aged #2 for an extra four years?
4. 2002 Chateau Domecq, $19.99. Similarities to Southern French Vin de Pays, like some wines we've had from the Languedoc region, with a nose redolent of green peppers. The third Domecq wine in a row (again, the selection at Gigante was limited), each one $6 more than the last. This one was the best so far and actually approaching what I'd call drinkable, but it also had some of that "port open too long" flavor, and it's still not something I'd spend $20 on again.
5. 2004 LA Cetto Cabernet Sauvignon, $8.59. Really, really bad. Like Concord grape juice, but not in a good way.
6. (Don't even remember the name of this one), $5.79. Apricot scented, with a fruity taste a bit like Sweet Tarts. Heather liked this one OK, the rest of us not so much.
In summary, these were the worst wines we've had in any tasting so far. That's not really shocking given the price point of most of these and the fact that they were corporate wines available at a supermarket, but we've had Sicilian wines for less than $6 that were better than anything here, and Heather and I have had also good Mexican wine in the past and knew it existed, so I still don't think it was out of line to expect a little more.
Fortunately though, the story doesn't end there.
The next night the group headed into town and had dinner at Thierry Blouet Cocina de Autor, which is the prix-fixe only dining room upstairs at Café des Artistes. An epic French feast in the middle of Puerto Vallarta, this was easily the best meal I'd ever had outside of the United States, and the perfect way for AJ and I to celebrate our birthday on the group's last night in Mexico.
Before the meal we each had a glass of wine in the wine bar downstairs, and it was here that we found the quality Mexican wine that we had been looking for. The best two were both from Monte Xanic, which is the same producer that made the bottle that Heather and I had had at Felipe's up on Insurgentes several years before. AJ got a glass of Monte Xanic Cabernet, and Heather and I tried the Monte Xanic "Gran Ricardo", which I believe was some kind of reserve. There were also a few other red wines from Mexico they had that were quite nice, which names now unfortunately fail me, but according to a poster about Mexican wines that the girl at the bar showed us, the Monte Xanic wines and these other wines, in addition to all the wines we'd had the night before, were all from the same region in Baja California near Ensenada.
So, what's the moral of the story? I would say it's that good Mexican wine does exist, but that you're more likely to find it at one of the best restaurants in Mexico than you are at Gigante.
¡Salud!
posted by joeybliley at 1:55 PM
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